With only two short weeks to go before the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) officially adjusts South Africa’s fuel price, the Central Energy Fund (CEF) has provided us with yet another fuel price snapshot (captured 17 January), to help motorists prepare for what’s to come in the following weeks.
Unfortunately, it’s not looking good – for anybody. Despite the fairly large increase motorists were slapped with back in January, the DMRE is looking to fix a R1+ increase to the price of diesel, while petrol drivers have been let off easy with a still-painful R0.80c hike expected.
Bad news for petrol and diesel drivers…
It’s worth mentioning that the CEF’s figures below are not final. The DMRE are officially responsible for adjusting the country’s fuel pumps on the first Wednesday of every month. In this case, that’ll fall on Wednesday, 5 February. Even so, that doesn’t make the CEF’s predictions any less valuable.
The CEF, a state-owned energy company reporting to the DMRE, is responsible for tracking the two biggest economic factors that can influence the price of fuel in South Africa: the current price of unrefined oil globally, and the current Rand/US Dollar exchange rate. The DMRE then reviews this data at the end of the month to best determine any changes to the price of fuel commercially.
As such, the rising cost of Crude Oil and the ever-weakening Rand has not done any favours to the price of fuel locally. There’s still time for things to turn around, however. Should the Rand make a come-back over the coming weeks – or the price of oil drop, even slightly, it’ll mean cheaper fuel prices for South Africans. Without any further ado…
Here are the petrol and diesel price predictions (so far) for February 2025:
- Petrol 93: increase of 94 cents per litre (R0.94)
- Petrol 95: increase of 88 cents per litre (R0.88)
- Diesel 0.05%: increase of 110 cents per litre (R1.10)
- Diesel 0.005%: increase of 107 cents per litre (R1.07)
- Illuminating Paraffin: increase of 96 cents per litre (R0.96)
